My work is dependent on design fundamentals: form, color, and composition. My style explores the relationship between man-made structures and the natural world; the idea of recognizable shapes and structures living within irrational thoughts and emotions. I begin a new piece very spontaneously and become more detailed as the composition starts to show itself. The first layers are the most erratic and freeform, similar to automatic writing. I use large, commercial grade palette knives. A dialogue is created with the painting, and it starts to show me what needs to be done. My newer work has taken on more of a simplified composition, coming across as abstract landscapes or all-over color fields. I put down the brush and started working exclusively with large commercial grade palette knives around 2008, which had a dramatic effect on my work. I invented a “shoe palette knife” which I use on early layers to challenge the way my body connects to the surface. Thick layers of acrylic and pumice and are applied, scraped off, reapplied, sliced off, etc. There’s a technique I call “scuffling” which involves a repetitive chopping motion with the palette knife resulting in approximate parallel lines. The color fields interplay with each other, attempting to find common ground resulting in complex and interesting edges. The process continues until a solution is found, always applying and mixing paint directly on the canvas, scraping away layers to reveal the ghostly characters of the previous. It’s no mystery that I am influenced by the Abstract Expressionists, and I am combining some of the aspects of action and color field painting.

http://shawnmcnulty.com